"Neoliberal" Leninism In India And Its Class Character
21 February, 2007
By Pratyush Chandra
21 February, 2007
"Criticism - the most keen, ruthless and uncompromising criticism - should be directed, not against parliamentarianism or parliamentary activities, but against those leaders who are unable - and still more against those who are unwilling - to utilise parliamentary elections and the parliamentary rostrum in a revolutionary and communist manner. Only such criticism-combined, of course, with the dismissal of incapable leaders and their replacement by capable ones-will constitute useful and fruitful revolutionary work that will simultaneously train the "leaders" to be worthy of the working class and of all working people, and train the masses to be able properly to understand the political situation and the often very complicated and intricate tasks that spring from that situation." (Lenin, "Left-Wing Communism: an Infantile Disorder", Chapter 7)
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posted by Resistance 21.2.07,
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Golwalkar Guruji: Superhuman Or Less Than Human?
Countercurrents.org
He was known as 'guruji' (revered teacher). I find that at least in some vernacular papers he is being referred to as 'shreeguruji'. The addition of shree to his title guruji makes him nearly sacred, an avatar of sorts. Within the Maharashtrian context this has an additional meaning or signification. Mystic gurus are often referred to as 'shreeguruji'. You can see thus that there has been rather subtle glorification of Golwalkar, the new appellation making him stand a little above the human level.
- GPD (March 25, 2006, EPW GPD, An Occasion for RSS)
I.
It is said that masses have very short memories. For them it is easy to send today's icon into oblivion without much hair splitting or it is still easier for them to hail yesterday's monster as today's development man.
But do classes or their intellectuals also suffer from similar amnesia? Looking at the important role played by them in the running of the society/state it is expected that they appear different. A recent writeup by one of the think-tanks of the right (Sudhindra Kulkarni, who also happened to be a 'ghost writer' for the ex deputy PM and was supposedly responsible for the 'iron leaders' speech at Jinnah Mausoleum) in the Sunday Express (11 th Feb 20007) belies this expectation. One could also decipher that it is a deliberate ploy by the writer to obfuscate things. It is equally possible that he is trying to present his wishful thinking as in-depth analysis before the masses.
Whatever may be the case, here we are presented with an analysis, which is not only bereft of historical facts but also appears to be another poor attempt at repackaging of a dangerous anti-human trend in Indian politics represented by the Hindu right.
The writer talks about how things are moving or rather changing at RSS. And to buttress his point he mentions two things: the way the RSS has extended invitation to Ms Sonia Gandhi for the programme organized to commemorate the birth anniversary of Golwalkar and secondly, proposal by Madan Das Devi, to deliberate on the Sachar Committee report in the coming meeting of RSS and suggest some measures for the poor Muslims.
Definitely the pen pusher for the ex-Iron Man cannot be faulted for his weak memories, but he can definitely be advised to just flip through similar expectations harboured by the likes of Jayprakash Narayan and others and how they came to a naught. Perhaps he would be delighted to know when Janata Party came to power way back in 1977, an impression was created that the secretive RSS – which retains its Brahminical core intact - was even ready to admit even Muslims in its ranks. It took a lot of time for the genuinely concerned citizens to comprehend that all that was meant for mere public consumption. RSS, which found itself cornered then because of its not so glorious role in the emergency – when it had tried to undertake secret parleys with Ms Indira Gandhi or had even instructed its cadres put in jails to give written undertakings before the Emergency regime – had put forward this proposal to wriggle itself out of the situation.
Perhaps the best thing for him would be to do look at the expectations entertained by a section of the liberal intelligentsia who had thought that a stint at power at the center would rather moderate the 'rabble rousers' and the way they got 'Modified'.
II.
Ofcourse anyone remotedly familiar with RSS would tell you that the RSS, which calls itself the biggest cultural organization on the face of the earth, is seriously trying to do a makeover.
It is a different matter that all these attempts focus not on the essence but the appearance of the organization, the challenge present before it in the wee hours of the 21 st century and they essentially get reduced to presenting a sanitized version of this project before the gullible masses.
It was only last year that there was news in the section of the media about the brainstorming going on within RSS where many a topics vital for the sustenance and continuation of the organization were being discussed. Ranging from the 'greying' of the RSS Shakhas to the impact of the electronic channels on the attendance, ranging from the backward looking dress to the relevance of its ideology in times of globalisation everything was put under scanner. Interestingly one of the most serious problem which inadvertently or so, continued to bother the minds of the RSS bosses and continues to remain a focus of attention, concerns the 'moral degeneration' of its cadre.
It is widely known that many of the leading cadres or their near and dear ones, are facing investigation for their dealings involving financial matters. While the world at large saw with its own eyes, its old Swayamsevak (who was later declared a failed one) Bangaru Laxman accepting wades of notes from a fraudulent arms dealer (thanks to the sting operation done by Tehelka), it also noticed that biggest contingent of MPs who faced expulsion because of similar sting operation, belonged to the Sangh only.
The world has not forgotten why the ex-spokesperson of the RSS M.G. Vaidya ( who is considered a think-tank in the RSS parlance and expresses views which are still considered very much akin to the RSS patriarchs) had to resign from his post all of a sudden during NDA era itself, when media exposed the dubious role played by his son and daughter in law in a financial company. Perhaps the best example from the Sangh hierarchy could be that of Madan Das Devi, who still has been asked to maintain liason between the BJP and the RSS. Tavleen Singh, a journalist said to be close to the RSS in a signed article 'Rashtriya Swayamseva Sangh' (Indian Express, 2003) had given details of Devi's very own son's involvement in the Petrol Pump Scam
Of course as far as matters of financial wheeling and dealing are concerned, the involvement of people who are brought up in the Sangh tradition are numerous. As they say it in a Sanskrit Shloka 'Hari Ananta, Harikatha Ananta' one can go on presenting instances where people who wear their Sangh lineage on their sleeves had no compunction in even occupying land meant for Dalits for years together ( Venkaiah Naidu) or making a beeline for plots at prime locations in Delhi under fictitious trusts which were existing on mere paper. It is a different matter that RSS still has the audacity to call itself an organization committed to character building.
While all such examples have definitely put a question mark over the moral high ground occupied by the RSS, the Sangh Patriarchs seem to be more disturbed with what can be called 'Sanjay Joshi Phenomenon'. The world very well knows how this powerful general secretary of the BJP ( loaned to it by RSS) had to make a ignominious exit recently when he was eased out of his responsibilities. The immediate cause for his exit because of a CD scandal, which refused to get settled despite his getting a 'clean chit' by the MP state government.
For the uninitiated it might be told that Sanjay Joshi, who happened to be a senior Pracharak of the RSS, who was 'loaned' to the BJP some years back, faced axe on the eve of the silver jubilee celebrations of the party last year. The immediate cause for this action was the circulation of a CD, which allegedly showed him (or a lookalike) with a woman in a compromising position. Later he was given a clean chit by the MP government, supposedly after conducting an enquiry. Although he was promptly rehabilitated in the party, doubts continued to linger over the way the enquiry was hushed up. It is learnt that recently when new 'facts' relating to the CD episode came up, the party decided to ease him out of his responsibilities to save itself from further embarrassment.
Very few people would know that the whole CD exposure was an intra-Parivar affair and none from the 'pseudo-secularist' camp was even blamed for it. A leading think tank of the RSS, M.G. Vaidya, in a signed article in a Marathi daily 'Tarun Bharat' had even written that the Sangh Patriarchs know who is behind the episode and if they wish the wrongdoers could be paid in the same coin. There were unconfirmed reports that the whole sting operation was done at the behest of the Chief Minister of a neighbouring state and one of his close female confidants supposedly to settle scores with Joshi. It was worth noting that a compromise within the 'warring factions' could be reached only after Mohan Bhagwat, another senior leader of the RSS intervened and settled the matter.
Looking at the secretive nature of the organization and the clandestine manner in which it functions, there is no way one could get to know what conclusions have been drawn by the RSS patriarchs over the whole issue of 'moral degeneration'. Looking at the fact that Sanjay Joshi episode continued to simmer more than a year after the CD was made public, one can gather that the rot runs quite deep and the Parivar bosses are still looking for answers.
Close watchers of the Sangh trajectory would vouch that the sting operation was rather a tip of the iceberg. It was worth noting that in the immediate aftermath of the 'ceasefire' reached between the warring factions of the Parivar, in connection with the Sanjay Joshi episode, 'Tehelka' did a story, where it provided details of an anonymous CD making rounds in the Sangh hierarchy, which allegedly showed another of its senior leaders in poor light.
Interestingly while the 'moral degeneration' of the leaders might have become a cause of concern of late, it cannot be said that it is a recent phenomenon. Balraj Madhok, a senior leader of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh, in his autobiography provides details of the lifestyles of senior leaders. Madhok, in his autobiography Zindagi Ka Safar, published in three parts presents vivid description of the way senior leaders functioned then and the manner in which the top bosses of the RSS, namely Golwalkar dealt with issues involving moral turpitude..
Balraj Madhok writes :
Some time back when I was the President of the Jana Sangh, Jagadish Prasad Mathur, in-charge of the Central Office, who was staying with a senior leader at 30, Rajendra Prasad Road, had complained to me that the leader had turned that house into a den of immoral activities There everyday new girls were coming. Now water was flowing above heads. So as a senior leader of Jana Sangh I have dared to bring to your notice this fact. I had some information about character of the leader, but situation had deteriorated that much, I did not know. (Balraj Madhok, Zindagi Ka Safar – 3 : Deendayal Upadhyaya Ki Hatya Se Indira Gandhi Ki Hatya Tak, Delhi : Dinmaan Prakashan, 20003, p.22)
He further provides details about Golwalkar's reaction to the whole episode as Madhok had discovered then that senior leadership of the RSS was bent upon making this particular leader President of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh. Discussing his meeting with Golwalkar, he tells :
After listening to my talk he kept quiet for some time and then said –' I am in the know of the weaknesses of the character of these people. But I have to run an organization. I have to take everybody together, so like Shiva I drink poison everyday.(ibid p.62)
III.
Looking at the crisis of legitimacy, which the RSS is facing because of the moral degradation of its cadres, it deemed it necessary to present itself as 'moral exemplars of the nation' supposedly to lift the morale of its cadres and also repackage itself as a 'moderate' 'nationalist' organization. And the birth anniversary of its second Supremo called Madhav Sadashiv Golwalkar alias Guruji happened to be just that occasion.
Since the birth centenary celebrations are moving towards completion, a question can naturally be asked whether it proved successful in 'repackaging itself' or it inadvertently opened up many questions before itself and is still struggling for answers. With hindsight one can say that it has been a mixed experience. While it could present a sanitized version of its activities or a defanged version of the second supreme before the masses with a lot of gusto, it has opened a pandora's box before itself as well. Reason being the impossibility of presenting repacked version of Golwalkar, the second Supremo, which would fit into the mood of the 21 st century. How could they carve out a 'Saint' from person who yearned for anti-human solutions to human problems, one who kept himself as well as the organization away from the surging anti-colonial struggle of the Indian masses, who was not only an unashamed supporter of Nazism and Fascism and till the end of his life who yearned for a society based on Manu's edicts.
IV.
RSS the biggest 'cultural' organisation on the face of the earth has had five supremos 'Sarsanghchalaks' since its inception. Starting from founder member Hedgewar and leading upto KS Sudarshan the present incumbent, the interregnum was filled by Golwalkar, Deoras and Rajendra Singh. If one takes a synoptic view of each of these periods then one can definitely discern the definitive impact each of them has had on the organisation. Ofcourse none of them proved as controversial as the second incumbent namely Madhav Sadashiv Golwalkar whose birth centenary is being celebrated by his followers this year.
Coming to Golwalkar, his biographers tell us that Madhav Sadashiv Golwalkar got the alias Guruji for his brief stint in the zoology department of Banaras Hindu University in the early thirties as a teacher. We are also told that he was a latecomer to the RSS, as he was more keen to undertake a spiritual journey via the Ramakrishna Mission. Despite his late entry to the organisation, he earned the confidence of the founder-member Hedgewar in a very short time supposedly because of his brilliance and sharpness of logic. It was logical that when the supremo breathed his last, he left a note asking his followers to make him the next Supremo.(1940) Golwalkar carried on with this responsibilities for a span of 33 years till his death, a period which saw lot of turmoil within the organisation and also witnessed a consolidation and expansion of the same via a network of organisations.
Insiders to the organisation as well as many external wathchers agree to the fact that he could be considered the key figure who provided a theoretical background to the project of Hindutva and laid down the seeds of the vast organisational network. As of now the plethora of anushangik ( affiliated) organisations which owe allegiance to the ideology of Hindutva would run in hundreds, each catering to a section of society. Scholars as well as activists, who may posit themselves diametrically opposite vis-a-vis the weltanshauung of this Hindu Supremacist organisation , also need to study in detail the way an organisation which was on the margins of Indian society for a long time could reach the centrestage of Indian politics. One still remembers how RSS people were made a butt of jokes in popular culture in Maharashtra especially --Marathi dramas in late sixties-early seventies - mainly because of their remaining limited to Brahmins or their insistence on mechanical style discipline. It is true that this era in RSS history it is long passe.
Madhav Sadashiv Golwalkar spanned a period in world history, which could be said to be unique in many ways. It was a period when Nazism-Fascism was ready to swamp the whole of Western Europe, a period when national liberation struggles in many of the third world countries were near culmination and the great experiments of Socialist construction undertaken in Soviet Russia coupled with the rising tide of communist led militant movements were proving to be a defining characteristics of the era.
Retrospectively one can say that it was such a juncture in world history when the old world of feudalism, colonialism, was crumbling down and a new world was emerging. And it would not be incorrect to state that due to his peculiar weltanschauung which yearned for building a Hindu Rashtra based on the 'glorious traditions of Hinduism' and which looked towards Muslims as bigger adversary vis-a-vis British colonialism and which sought inspiration from the experiments in 'social engineering' undertaken by Nazism-Fascism, he completely failed to have a pulse on the march of history. In fact due to his intransigence he not only kept himself personally aloof from the surging anti-colonial struggle but also did not chalk out any positive programme for his organisation to participate in it.
As already mentioned the first of his theoretical contributions for the cause of Hindutva appeared in the form of a pamphlette called 'We or Our Nationhood Defined' (1938). It was so straightforward in its appreciation of the 'ethnic cleansing' of Jews undertaken by Hitler and such an unashamed proponent of the submergence of 'foreign races' in the Hindu race that later day RSS leaders have tried to create an impression that the said book was not written by Golwalkar but it was merely a translation of a book 'Rashtra Meemansa' by Babarao Savarkar.
It is a different matter that in his Preface to We or Our Nationhood Defined dated March 22, 1939, Golwalkar himself described Rashtra Meemansa as 'one of my chief sources of inspiration and help. The American scholar Jean A. Curran who did a full length study on RSS in early fifties, in his sympathetic book, Militant Hinduism in Indian Politics: A Study of the RSS (1951) confirms that Golwalkar's 77-page book was written in 1938 when he was appointed RSS General Secretary by Hedgewar and he calls it as RSS's 'Bible'.A. G. Noorani in his famous book ' The RSS and the BJP: A Division of Labour, {Pgs. 18-39} Leftword Books) also tells us that :Rajendra Singh and Bhaurao Deoras made an authoritative statement on that book in Para 10 of their 1978 application: 'With a view to give a scientific base to propagate the idea India being (sic) historically from time immemorial a Hindu Nation, late Shri M.S. Golwalkar had written a book entitled, "We or Our Nationhood Defined",' In Para 7 they 'placed on record' his book Bunch of Thoughts (1966) in order 'to clarify and understand the true purpose, the exact nature, the ambit and scope of the RSS work… and its activities.'
A quote from the 77 paged book would be opportune at this moment.
"The foreign races in Hindusthan must either adopt the Hindu culture and language, must learn to respect and hold in reverence Hindu religion, must entertain no idea but those of the glorification of the Hindu race and culture, i.e., of the Hindu nation and must loose their separate existence to merge in the Hindu race, or may stay in the country, wholly subordinated to the Hindu Nation, claiming nothing, deserving no privileges, far less any preferential treatment — not even citizen's rights. There is, at least, should be, no other course for them to adopt. We are an old nation; let us deal, as old nations ought to and do deal, with the foreign races, who have chosen to live in our country".
( Madhav Sadashiv Golwalkar's, We or Our Nationhood Defined)
A third arena where Golwalkar proved much behind his times was his love for Manusmriti's edicts. When leaders of newly independent India were struggling to have a constitution which was premised on the inviolability of individual rights with special provisions of positive discrimination for millions of Indians who had been denied any human rights quoting religious scriptures, it was Golwalkar again who espoused the same Manusmriti as independent India's constitution.'Organiser' ( November 30, 1949, p.3) the organ of RSS complained :
But in our constitution there is no mention of the unique constitutional developments in ancient Bharat. Manu's laws were written long before Lycurgus of Sparta or Solon of Persia. To this day laws as enunciated in the Manusmriti excite the admiration of the world and elicit spontaneous obedience and conformity. But to our constitutional pundits that means nothing.
When attempts were made under the stewardship of Ambedkar and Nehru in late forties to give limited rights to Hindu women in property and inheritance through the passage of the Hindu Code Bill , Golwalkar and his associates had no qualms in launching a movement opposing this historic empowerment of hindu women which was to take place for the first time in history. Their contention was simple : This step is inimical to Hindu traditions and culture.
It was late '60s when Maharashtra witnessed a massive mobilisation of people, cutting across party lines, which was precipitated by a controversial interview given by Madhav Sadashiv Golwalkar, the then Supremo (Sarsanghchalak) of RSS, to a Marathi daily Navakal Golwalkar in this interview had extolled the virtues of Chaturvarnya (the division of the Hindus in four Varnas) and had also glorified Manusmriti, the ancient edicts of the Hindus.
IV
Delhi will host a Grand Programme to commemorate the birth anniversary of Golwalkar on the 18 th of February. In fact this massive programme is a culmination of the yearlong celebrations of the birth anniversary of the second Supremo, which started with a colorful programme held on 24 th February in Nagpur last year. We very well know that a team of 122 members, belonging to different spheres of social life, besides 53 prominent saints and spiritual leaders of the country as patrons, had been constituted for the birth-centenary year celebrations.
Vice President of India, Bhairon Singh Shekhawat would preside over the function and many other dignitaries would speak on the occasion. As we know it had been decided to have 'social harmony' (samajik samrasta) as central theme of the yearlong celebrations during which Hindu rallies were organised at the block level all over the country
For the followers of Golwalkar the birth anniversary of one of their Pratasmaraniya ( worth remembering in the morning) icons has also been an occasion to revisit that period during which the second supremo held sway. And surprisingly they are not finding themselves much comfortable with it for various reasons. It is evident in the way in which on the one hand they are lauding him for his 'contributions' but are also simultaneously engaged in surreptiously sanitising him and presenting him before the guillible public under a more acceptable, humane face.
Ofcourse not that they have second thoughts about the vision espoused by him, rather they have continued to show their adherence to it by organising the 'successful experiment' in Gujarat in 2002. The only problem they have is the presentation of the vision. Looking at his controversial pronouncements from time to time on various issues of social-political concern and his transcending the 'calculated ambiguity' on many a occasions which is a hallmark of the organisation which he built, it is not surprising that he has always come under barrage of attack from all those people/groups/organisations who differed with the weltanshaaung of the RSS or who oppose/d the project of Hindutva on various grounds.
The feverish and foolish attempts undertaken by the Swayamsevaks to show that Golwalkar was not the author but basically the translator of the controversial book , the way in which they are engaged in presenting concocted proofs to show that they did participate in the independence movement ( while their very own Golwalkar Guruji had the audacity to make a fun of the tremendous sacrifices made by the people in the anti colonial struggle)or the way they have dedicated the year long celebrations in his honour to the cause of 'social harmony' all goes to show their keenness to present the Second Supremo in a Sanitised form.
Their eagerness to present a more palatable Golwalkar was also evident when they went in for presenting a 'filmy' version of Golwalkar. Directed by ex-MP Nitish Bharadwaj ('Mahabharat' fame) the film tells us that it is a myth to say that RSS kept itself away from freedom struggle and in fact it had decided in its high level meeting to participate wholeheartedly in the struggle. (It is a different matter that till date one has not yet discovered a single freedom fighter who owed allegiance to RSS brand of Hindutva). If one goes by this bollywoodian version of Sangh trajectory, you would know that Congress government led by Nehru had made frantic calls to the Sangh bosses for Gandhi's safety and a team of Swayamsevaks in fact happened to be brave enough to volunteer for his security.
V
Definitely no less troubling are Golwalkar's ideas around 'Hindu Experiments in Cross-breeding' which extolled North Indian Brahmins at the cost of the rest of the Hindus themselves and in fact propagates an idea that India had a superior race or breed of Hindus and also an inferior race of Hindus, which needed to be improved through cross-breeding.
In his address to the School of Social Science of Gujarat University on December 17, 1960 ( Organiser, January 2, 1961, p.5) he formulated this racist thesis.
Today experiments in cross-breeding are made only on animals. But the courage to make such experiments on human beings is not shown even by the so-called modern scientist of today. If some human cross-breeding is seen today it is the result not of scientific experiments but of carnal lust. Now let us see the experiments our ancestors made in this sphere. In an effort to better the human species through cross-breeding the Namboodri Brahamanas of the North were settled in Kerala and a rule was laid down that the eldest son of a Namboodri family would marry only the daughter of Vaishya, Kshatriya or Shudra communities of Kerala. Another still more courageous rule was that trhe first off-spring of a married woman of any class must be fathered by a Namboodri Brahmin and then she could beget children by her husband. Today this experiment would be called adultery, but it was not so, as it as limited to the first child.
As rightly noted by Dr. Shamsul Islam, in his book 'Golwalkar's We Or Our Nationhood Defined A Critique' ( 2006, Pharos Media, Delhi.pp. 30-31) 'The above statement of Golwalkar is highly derogatory in many respects. Firstly, it proves that Golwalkar believed that India had a superior race or breed of Hindus and also an inferior race of Hindus'..'Secondly, a more worrying aspect was the belief that only the Brahmins of the North, specifically Namboodri Brahmanas, belonged to a superior race."
Whatever may be the ideas of every justice loving person about the anti-human core of Golwalkar, his continued valorization in the Sangh circles reminds one of a Sanskrit proverb : Nirastapadapedeshe Erandopi Drumayate! (In a treeless country even castor counts for a big tree!)
- Contact : subhash.gatade@gmail.com
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posted by Resistance 19.2.07,
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Naxalite Movement in Bihar: A Domino Effect of Nepal?
14 February, 2007
The Maoists (also known as Naxalites) in India are emboldened by the recent success of their Nepalese counterpart, who emerged as a legitimate power center after a decade of protracted people’s war. The effects are already visible in Bihar, the neighboring Indian State. Despite convoluted security arrangement by the Bihar Police, partial successful of the Bandh (general strike) on Oct. 30, 2006, by the Maoists indicated that they are capable enough to strike at their will. The Naxalites have managed to blow up a forest bungalow and triggered a mine near Chamua railway station on the Narkatiaganj-Gorakhpur section under the Samastipur division of the East Central Railway in West Champaran district of Bihar. The blast damaged a 200-metre stretch of the track leading to the derailment of the engine and six bogies of a passenger train.
The Communist Party of India-Maoist (CPI-Maoist) had called a 24-hour bandh in Bihar, Jharkhand, Orissa and Chhattisgarh from Oct. 29, 2006-midnight to Oct. 30, 2006-midnight to protest the recent arrest of their leaders Narendra alias Osho in West Champaran district of Bihar and Sheela Marandi at Raniganj in Jharkhand. The strike by the Maoists spread over four States had affected general transport services. In Sitamarhi district, armed cadres of the CPI-Maoist set ablaze three private buses. Armed cadres descended on Balua- Gausnagar village under Runni Saidpur police station and set on fire three private buses parked in front of the house of former Sitamarhi block development committee chief Rameshwar Yadav. Of late, Railway has become a soft target of the Maoists. Despite Bihar Chief Minster, Nitish Kumar's fervent appeal to lay down arms and join the mainstream society, the Maoists continue to blow up railway tracks, police outposts and loot banks
Bihar is a fertile ground for the breeding of Naxalites due to poor governance, complex social structure, chronic poverty and formation of private armies. Starting their movement against feudal forces in early 1970s from Bhojpur, the Naxalites under the banner of erstwhile MCC (Maoist Communist Centre) and PW (People’s War) are now active in over 33 Bihar’s 38 districts and operate three fronts- CPI-Maoist, New Democracy and CPI (ML-Malay group). Apart from these groups Nepalese Maoists make their presence in the State taking advantage of 700 kilometers of porous border between India and Nepal. Although security personnel are manning the boarder, it is not possible to check the movements of the Nepalese Maoists in the border areas because of forests and inhospitable terrain. Districts like East and West Champaran, Sitamarhi and Sheohar in North Bihar have been facing a spurt in Maoist violence ever since the Maoists have become active in Nepal. However, according to a reliable sources, the Maoists of Nepal, India and Bangladesh use the Dharan-Biratnagar (Nepal)-Supaul-Purnia (Bihar, India) –via chicken neck of West Bengal-Dinajpur (Bangladesh) route to coordinate themselves for a ‘United Front’ against India.
However, despite peace talks with the seven party alliance and commitment to the Democracy, the Nepalese Maoists in a joint resolution together with its South Asian counterparts have vowed to “advance revolutions for the seizure of power by armed force” and "turn South Asia into a flaming field of Maoist revolutions." At the fourth conference of the Coordination Committee of the Maoist Parties and Organisations of South Asia (CCOMPOSA) in Aug. 2006, somewhere in Nepal, the Maoists of the South Asian counties vowed to advance the armed struggle for the seizure of power in the respective countries. General Secretary of Nepal Communist Party (Unity Centre, Masal), Mohan Bikram Singh, on Oct. 31 pointed out that the CPN-Maoist as one of the most unreliable political forces in Nepal and they would do anything to come to power. They once announced to dig bunkers to launch tunnel war against India but they have now established intimate relations with India to go to power, he added.
As India grapples with a difficult internal security situation in the wake of continuing Maoist attacks, the ‘United Front’ effort by the Asian Maoist outfits in general and linkages between the Nepalese Maoists and its Indian counterparts in particular have remained a cause of concern for India. The concern is obvious due to 1,690 kilometers of porous border with Nepal. In addition, internal security is in constant threat due to ideological, strategic and organisational linkages between the CPI-Maoist and the CPN-Maoist and misuse by the terrorist outfits. In late September, Union Minister of State for Home Affairs Shriprakash Jaiswal expressed apprehensions that terrorists could sneak into the country through the open Indo-Nepal border. The evidence of linkages are also confirmed by the annual report of the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) of India for the year 2004-05, which states that arms belonging to Nepali Maoists are finding their way to the underworld.
As a result, any qualitative development in the Maoists movement in Nepal has significant implications for India. A document on ‘objectionable’ moderate approach and its damage to the Maoists movement in Andhra Pradesh was circulated among the Indian cadres. They felt that the party should have followed the ‘militant’ line as practised by the Maoists in Nepal and the LTTE in Sri Lanka. A document of CPI (Maoist) titled "New Challenges: Our Perspectives", meant for internal circulation, has emphasised the need for an evaluation of the Indian scenario, and, then redefine its strategies and field tactics. With modernization of its weaponry by procuring new sophisticated weapons, the Indian Maoists are closely monitoring the developments in Nepal. The Maoists victory in Nepal has strengthened the morale of Indian counterpart to accelerate the activities in India.
While the Maoists in India are all set to start a United Front with the support of its South Asian counter parts, the state responses to the menace is incoherence and lackadaisical. Even the formation of Naxalite Coordination Committee and the Task Force comprising nodal officers of the nine Naxal-affected states have failed to coordinate between the states. Apart from so called multi-pronged actions against the Maoists, the authorities should take all necessary steps to check external influence over the Maoists.
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Labels: Article, Bihar, CPI(Maoist)
posted by Resistance 14.2.07,
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The other India we forget
10 February, 2007
Debt, drought, killer police and lack of basic facilities
Indians proud of their nuclear arm, third largest army, fourth largest air force and the eighth strongest economy--and hoping to join the top four in the near future--now see every thing through the golden lens of hope and confidence. With the streets of our towns chocked with cars and the hoi polloi owning TV sets and moving around on scooters with mobiles ringing in their pockets Union Finance Minister talks of even catching up with the Chinese Dragon in terms of prosperity.
We are told that the bad old days of acute poverty and distress have been left behind in the pages of history. Now we are to only work, aspire and go forward to the Eldorado of our dream. But, then suddenly, our dream is disturbed by the discordant note emanating from the villages of Vidarbha. Since the year 2002 the number of farmers, mostly cotton-growers there, committing suicide has crossed the two digit figure and their number is increasing every year.
If, in 2002, only 102 had committed suicide, the number rose to 156 in 2003, to 324 in 2004, to 412 in 2005 and to a whopping 1050 in the year 2006 we have just left behind. Even in January 2007 sixty-two farmers there have taken their own lives and some of us proud to announce that, for the first time in six months, the monthly death toll has fallen below the three digit figure.
Surely, the people there are not well off, or else so many would not have taken their own lives. Last July even the prime minister had to rush to Nagpur to announce a special relief package of Rs. 3750 crores. But, the locals claim that it has so far brought little relief to the affected poor. The Maharashtra government claims that over 3000 have died in the last three years and over 12 lakhs have been cruelly crushed by debt and drought. Unfortunately, what is so terribly true of Vidarbha is partially so in many other parts of India including prosperous Punjab.
Or else, why should in the last five years the number of districts affected by the Naxalite menace rise from 52 to 175, forcing the prime minister call for a meeting of the CMs of the 13 Naxalite affected states and to admit that many more had died of violence in those states than in J&K and the bloody north-east, put together.
But, whom to look up to for security. What had been long rumoured is now cruelly staring at our face as bodies after bodies are being exhumed in Kashmir and skeletons after skeletons are tumbling out of the cup-boards of the army and the police. Now, after protectors have been proved to be our killers in search of easy recognition, awards and rewards, sending the signal that the innocent poor is no longer safe even in their homes.
One may be hunted down if he fails to humour or satisfy the security officials. They are now a law unto themselves, but as the incident at Jehanabad near Patna underlined they failed to put up a resistance when the Naxalites attacked the police station. The killing field of Nithari also reveals either with the complicity of the local police or their unpardonable inactivity in the face of the maniac murderes, like Pandher and Kohli.
Now the locals have reasons to suspect that the local police officials are being shifted to cover up the crime and to protect the criminals. So, where do we turn to for our security?While many in our police force are busy protecting the powerful and terrorising the weak as many as 1054 children, between the ages of six months and 18 years, have gone missing, as per police record, in the prosperous states of Gujarat, between the years 2001 and 2005.
In almost all cases the parents of victims accuse the local police of extreme apathy in registering the FIR and in following up the investigation. The police in Gujarat has proved in 2002--in varying degrees it is true of other states too--that the state police can be the oppressing arm of the state authorities. And, when people in distress and disgust seek relief in the hands of the judiciary they are often confronted with the frustrating reality of corrupt judges handling the balance of justice.
People pay taxes and obey laws, mainly, in search of security and opportunity. If the police, the judiciary and hospitals assure us security, the education system provides us with the opportunity to better our future. But, a visit to government hospitals and schools all over India is, indeed, an abominable experience.
Medicare and school education system have virtually collapsed leaving the average Indian worried and uncertain about his own future and that of their children, if he cannot afford an expensive school. This is the life that our villagers and slum-dwellers live and their face, that of the other India, we cannot afford to forget.
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posted by Bimal 10.2.07,
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From Corporate Land Grab To Land Sovereignty
09 February, 2007
By Vandana Shiva
9 February, 2007
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"There is a sacred tie between the tiller and the land. Any attempt to snap the relationship is bound to face opposition". P. Chidambaram (Finance Minsiter )
India's Finance Minister Mr. Chidambaram is not a friend of farmers or a friend of the earth. He is committed to the neoliberal ideology. Yet even he has had to speak out against the corporate land grab of India's small farms through the creation of Special Economic Zones (SEZ's) and FDI in real estate. Every place where land is being acquired to create islands of luxury and lawlessness, land wars have erupted. From Kalinganagar to Dadri, from Singur to Nandigarm the force of arms and ammunition in the hands of the police force is being used to assault and kill innocent farmers and tribals defending their land rights, guaranteed by the Constitution, through democratic means, also guaranteed by the Constitution.
The land wars are testing every aspect of India - as a culture based on the earth as a sacred mother - Dharti - who supports us all, - an agrarian economy based on small farmers and peasants, a decentralized democracy which through the 73rd and 74th Amendments has made local communities the competent bodies to make decisions on natural resources
The large scale uprooting of millions of farmers in U.P, West Bengal, Maharasthra is breaking the sacred bond between peasants and the land, which supports them. But it is also breaking the contract between citizens and the state which is based on the state being bound by the Constitution, and the fundamental rights of citizens that the Constitution guarantees.
The Union Government, after prolonged deliberations, notified the Special Economic Zone (SEZ) Rules in February, 2006 operationalising the SEZ Act 2005. The Government has cleared hundreds of SEZs and applications of several other developers are pending.
SEZs are specially demarcated zones where units operate under a set of rules and regulations different from those applicable to other units in the country. The emphasis is on enhancing exports and creating an environment for attracting foreign direct investment (FDI) by offering taxsops. While units in the zone have to be net foreign - exhange earners, they are not subjected to any pre-determined value addition or minimum export performance requirements.
Any private, public, joint sector or state government or its agencies can set up SEZs. Foregin companies, too, are eligible.
SEZ units will be eligible for 100 percent tax exemption for the first five years, 50 percent for the next two and 50 percent of the ploughed back export profits for the next five years. Losses will be allowed to be carried forward. The Finance Ministry has stated this will lead to losses of nearly Rs. 2 trillion
Developers may import / procure goods without payment of duty for the development, operation and maintenance of SEZs. They will enjoy income tax exemption for 10 years, with a block period of 15 years. The developers will also have the freedom to allocate developed plots to approved SEZ units on a purely commercial basis. They will also have the full authority to provide services like water, electricity, security, restaurants, recreation centers etc. on commercial lines. Moreover, they will be exempt from paying service tax.
Within a year of the Central Act and less than six months of the enactment of the Act State legislation, Haryana started to set up the country's largest multi-product SEZ, stretching over 25000 acres between Gurgaon and Jhajjar off the Delhi-Jaipur highway. It is being set up jointly by Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) and the Haryana State Industrial and Infrastructure Development Corporation (HSIIDC). RIL alone will invest Rs. 25000 crores, while Rs. 15000 crores will be put in by companies interested in investing in the SEZ.
It is claimed that the SEZ has provisions for a cargo airport and a 2000 megawatt power plant, and would generate 500,000 jobs and that the State Government would earn revenues up to Rs. 10,000 crores. Reliance is the major stakeholder with 90 percent stake in the joint venture company while the remaining 10 percent rests with HSIIDC. On 31st December, 22 Panchayats organised a strategy to fight Reliance's Land Grab.
Reliance has also grabbed about 10,000 hectares of land for SEZ in Pen Tehsil of Raigad district in Maharasthra. The villagers now know fully well they are pitted against the formidable adversary - the giant Reliance, which has claimed 25,000 hectares land for its own SEZ in Haryana. It is spreading its wings in textiles, power, contract farming, medicinal herbs, sugar industries and retail stores. They realize that the Company has enormous sway over the political, bureaucratic establishment and the media. Yet in Raigad too farmers have declared that they will not allow their land to be taken away.
This land grab will totally pauperize our peasantry and create a new generation of corporate zamindars. Average land holdings in India are two acres and less. To rob the small peasants of what little they have and put in the hands of giants like Reliance with Rs. 100,000 crore wealth is to create a country of disposed paupers. Land grab for SEZ's will also aggravate the agrarian crisis by robbing farmers of their main resource - land.
The use of the outmated colonial Land Acqusition Act of 1894 to forcefully evict peasants and grab their lands for coproations violates the Constitution and the Human Rights of farmers. It also contradicts the rhetoric of trade liberalization - of getting the Government out of the market and the economy.
Land, a sacred trust is being commodified by using state muscle to deny farmers their rights and then establish corporate monopoly on land ownership. It also contradicts the purpose of the land acquisition act which was supposed to be used for acquiring land for public purpose, not for private gain and monopoly ownership rights. Worst of all, it undoes India's land reforms.
Zamindari was the colonial mode of maximizing revenue from the land. Once India's land was usurped, the collection of public revenue became a prime concern of the colonizing powers. Someone needed to be taxed. Before the British came to India produce was taxed but the land itself was not. To collect the tax, the British needed proprietors of land who would collect rents from the cultivators and pass it on to them. How could this be done?
The answer was extremely simple - create landlords. The task of finding the landlords was not too difficult - who better than those who already were used to collect money from the peasants for the state? The Zamindars formed the majority of the new landlords.
A motley collection of rural overlords in late 18th century Bengal conveniently and misleadingly went under the single name of zamindar. To compound the confusion, these varied elements in the Bengal countryside bore no resemblance to the village zamindars. The Bengal zamindars encompassed at least four separately identifiable categories; the old territorial heads of principalities, such as the rajas of Tippera and Cooch Behar; the great landholdeing families who paid a fixed land tax and behaved like feudatory chiefs, such as the Rajas of Burdwan, Dinajpur, Rajshahi, Jessore, and Nadia; the numerous families and who held offices for collecting land revenue over a number of generations; and revenue farmers established by the grant of Diwani in 1765.
In a bad "case of mistaken identify"' Lord Cornwallis, the governor general, by a grand proclamation on March 22, 1793, followed up by a barrage of regulations, conferred the prized private property right in land to this diverse group of rural overlords unified only in name. And it was the unjust extraction of revenue that led to the great Bengal Famine.
Zamindari abolition got rid of the conditions of famine of 1942 in Bengal by getting rid of concentration of land ownership and the inhuman diversion of the produce of the land to pay revenues. Besides the Zamindari Abolition Act, independent India also enacted land Ceiling Acts in rural and urban areas. By putting a ceiling on ownership of land, land was distributed among larger numbers of farmers, making India a land of small peasants, not rich landlords controlling thousands of acres.
These land reforms are now being undone by the anti-reform of the neo-liberal paradigm. The assets of the small farmers are being transferred to giant corporations. Zamindari is now being institutionalized through SEZ's. Like Lord Cornwallis' grand proclamation, hundreds of thousands of acres of prime farming land are being made the property of corporations.
West Bengal which distributed land to the tiller through operation Barga is today using police force to rob land from the tiller and create a police state. When people fight back land acquisition for Tata Motors in Singur through the Krishi Jan Raksha Committee, a plantform of nine political parties and groups, led by Trinamul Congress of Mamta Banerjee and including CPI (ML), the Party for Democratic Socialism, CUI (ML) Janmat-ul-Ulena.
In Nandigram, six farmers were killed when Bhoomi Uiched Pratirodh (Resistance to Land Acquisition) Committee resisted Land Acquisition for the Salim group in Indonesia. The Communist regime of West Bengal is fighting not just farmers but its own philosophy of land reforms based on land for the tiller. Its current philosophy has become land for corporations. In a country where 60% people depend on land, protests against land grab are inevitable.
The protests against land grab for SEZ's have spread like wildlife. On 17.1.2002 the Government was forced to suspend new clearances worried that protests would affect its fate in the upcoming elections. The proposal of the Prime Minister to give dispossessed farmers "stock options", is no solution. It is based on two false assumption - one that the Government has the right to violently appropriate the land of small farmers and peasants for its corporate friends wherever and whenever it wants. This is not democracy, it is corporate feudalism.
Secondly, the Prime Minister's assumption of "stock option" in place of farmers land rights suggests that he has a world view that small farmers can be fully dispossessed and uprooted from farming, and the real wealth of farmers in their land can be replaced by crumbs in the speculative finance economy bubble. We merely have to remember how the financial bubble burst in South East. The Prime Minister has also invited Edward de Soto who promotes commodification of land to the 10th centennial celebrations of Gandhi's satyagraha on 30th January, the day of Gandhi's martyrdom . Soto is not just for removed from Gandhi's ideas of Swaraj and satyagraha, his proposals infact total undermine Swaraj.
Now that the Government has blinked on the SEZ issue, it is important to return to first principles, and decide democratically, from the grassroots what does land mean to us? Who will own the land? What will it used for? Who will decide?
The future of the Indian people and Indian democracy rests on the land question. While the Government is forced to pause in its inhuman project of land grab, let the farmers and the democratic forces of the country join in evolving charter and an agenda for land sovereignty - Bhu Swaraj.
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posted by Bimal 9.2.07,
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Gandhi's early experiments with Sathyagraha
02 February, 2007
(Dear friends, Amids midst of celebrations on Gandhi's Sathyagraha still relevant today by ruling classes and the 'successes' achieved by Mamtas and Patkars . Please read the history of Gandhi's legacy of Sathyagraha.by Suniti Kumar Ghosh in India & the Raj Vol I .)
South Africa: A Weapon is forged
"South Africa", said Gandhi, "gave the start to my life's mission.”1 It was here that he devised his method of struggle which he named satyagraha, developed his mode of leadership and forged links with and won appreciation of the highest representatives of the raj— in South Africa, India and Britain—as well as of India's business and political elite. Gandhi had gone to South Africa for professional reasons in 1893 when he was about twenty-four and returned to India in January 1915—at the age of about forty-six. His experiments with truth, especially his satyagrahas, there were watched with keen interest by the British rulers as well as India's big businessmen and were supported by the latter with very generous funds.
The Indians in South Africa consisted mostly of indentured and ex-indentured labor. The indentured laborers went on five-year contracts to work on the railways and in the coalmines and plantations in Natal. Theirs was actually a state of semi-slavery, as W. W. Hunter said. 2
All Indians, including prosperous Gujarati merchants, were victims not only of social ostracism but also of many social and legal disabilities. Gandhi, the young barrister from India, was known as a "coolie barrister", despite his "faultless English dress", which was unable to save him from kicks and blows and other indignities when he aspired to equality of status with Europeans in railway trains, other means of transport or on the pavements of streets.
Natal and the Cape Colony were British colonies while the Transvaal and the Orange Free State were Dutch until the end of the Boer war in 1901. Later, in 1910, the four colonies merged to form the Union of South Africa. In the Transvaal, then a Dutch colony, Indians had to pay a poll tax of £ 3 and had no franchise; "locations," inconvenient and unhealthy, were set apart for them and color bar was strictly practiced. It was no less vicious in Natal.
The few Indian immigrants who enjoyed the right of franchise in Natal were mostly deprived of it in 1894. Gandhi drafted a petition to the British Secretary of State for the Colonies, on behalf of Indians in Natal, opposing the Franchise Law Amendment Bill. The petition, which had no effect, stated: "Your Lordship's Petitioners have noticed with shame and sorrow the zealous attempt made to compare your Petitioners with the Natives of South Africa." 3 In an open letter to the members of the Natal legislatures, Gandhi, while claiming that the Indians and the English have descended from the same common stock, regretted that the English regarded the Indians as "little better, if at all, than savages or the Natives of Africa,” whom he referred to as "raw Kaffirs."4
In "An Appeal to Every Briton in South Africa," dated 16 December 1895, Gandhi stated: "It is true England 'wafts her sceptre’ over India. The Indians are not ashamed of that fact. They are proud to be under the British Crown, because they think that England will prove India's deliverer." 4a
In the meantime—in 1894—the Natal government proposed to levy an annual tax of £ 25 on every Indian whose indenture had expired, when the average income of an Indian male worker was no more than 14 shillings a month. The Natal Indian Congress, of which Gandhi was secretary, organized an agitation against the proposal. Ultimately an annual tax of £ 3 was imposed on every Indian—man, woman and child above a certain age with the approval of the then Viceroy of India, Lord Curzon, whom Gandhi described as the "trustee of the welfare of India." 5
During these years Gandhi "vied with Englishmen in loyalty to the throne" and, curiously enough, it was his "love of truth [that] was at the root of this loyalty”6
Soon after, despite Indian representations, the Natal Legislative Assembly passed two bills, which, though not explicitly directed against Indians, were so designed as to restrict Indian immigration and curb the activities of Indian traders. Read the rest of this Article
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posted by Bimal 2.2.07,
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People's March February issue
28 January, 2007
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PEOPLES MARCH
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posted by Bimal 28.1.07,
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Peoplesmarch January 2007 issue
02 January, 2007
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Peoplesmarch January 2007
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posted by Bimal 2.1.07,
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Left-Wing Extremism in India
Left-Wing Extremism in India
Accounting for 27 per cent of the total fatalities in India during 2006, Left Wing extremism constitutes what Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh rightly described as the "single biggest internal security challenge" confronting the country. The Communist Party of India-Maoist (CPI-Maoist), today, exercises dominance over a large swathe of the country’s territory, carry out attacks on security forces and symbols of governance at will. Chhattisgarh has now emerged as one of the principal centres of a co-ordinated Maoist movement. Indeed, with 361 fatalities in 2006, Chhattisgarh is the most violent State after Jammu and Kashmir. While the number of Maoist-affected States in the country is currently pegged at 14, the movement has demonstrated the intent and potential to spread across the length and breadth of the country. The Maoist threat has now overtaken all other insurgencies in the country – at least from the perspective of geographical spread, with various levels of Maoist mobilisation and violence currently afflicting at least 165 Districts in 14 States. Over the past years, moreover, while fatalities in various other insurgencies have tended to decline consistently, fatalities related to the Maoist conflict have continuously augmented.
A total of 742 persons died in Maoist-related violence across the country in 2006, up from 717 in 2005. Chhattisgarh in 2006 emerged as the worst affected State – dramatically displacing Andhra Pradesh – and the Dantewada District was by far the worst off within the State. Read more >>>>>
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posted by Bimal 2.1.07,
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